'The chance to redeem ourselves' - Coles says Saints are excited for European challenge

They build up huge momentum during a winter run of 10 successive wins in all competitions.

But this season has so far felt more fragmented with Saints struggling to get any real momentum in their performances.

Injuries and the absences of key men have hurt them and the on-off league schedule is not something they have thrived in, losing four of their seven league games.

They were nowhere near at their sharpest on their return to Premiership action last Saturday as their 13-match home league winning streak came to an end in frustrating fashion against Gloucester.

It felt like the perfect storm as international players tried to settle back into the starting line-up while the system was disrupted by first-half injuries to Fin Smith and George Hendy.

And Alex Coles, who had not played for Saints since the defeat at Bristol Bears on October 25 due to being on England duty, admits it was a tricky transition from life on the international scene to club action.

"I was really excited to get back but the combination of not having played and also being in a completely different system in defence and attack meant it was a bit of a hard transition for me, just getting used to everything again," said Coles.

"I was pleased to get a full 80 minutes under my belt but there were definitely some moments of over-eagerness on my part, coming out of system a bit with a couple of discipline errors that I was disappointed in."

On the performance as a whole, Coles said: "It was massively frustrating.

"Losing at home where we really pride ourselves on performing at home was pretty gutting and the manner in which it happened was even more frustrating.

"In that first half, we didn't really put any of ourselves on the field, which meant by the second half we had too much to do to catch up.

"A couple of tries that were disallowed meant we didn't have enough time to get the result back and everyone was hurting a lot from that result.

"We're all now excited to have a new challenge at home and the chance to redeem ourselves."

That challenge comes against Castres on Saturday afternoon as Saints start their Investec Champions Cup campaign at the Gardens.

And Coles said: "The focus is on massively trying to get a performance and we believe that will produce the right outcomes.

"There were some clear indicators from the first half of the game last weekend that were off in terms of our physicality, speed of movement, general lapses of concentration and accuracy that meant the outcome was off.

"We're pretty clear in what we need to fix and we believe if we get those things right come the weekend, we'll have a much better result."

Saints enjoyed a thrilling European adventure last season, making it all the way to the Champions Cup semi-finals.

"It was amazing," Coles said.

"Speaking to some of the other lads, some of their fondest memories of last season were in the cup and a lot of those results gave us belief for our league campaign that we could beat some of the best and produce that top-level rugby.

"Everyone's really excited to hopefully be involved in another successful campaign and hopefully go further than we did last year.

"You get to test yourself against the best so there's a real sense of excitement."

Castres are currently seventh in the Top 14.

And Coles said: "We know they've got some traditional French strengths in terms of them liking their scrum and maul so we know we're going to have to front up in that area as a forward pack.

"We're really looking forward to that challenge and the easiest way to show that physicality side we lacked last week is in that set-piece area.

"In the backs, they've got some dangerous players so we have to make sure our defensive work is on point and we're very excited."